The Official Blog of the Independent Community of Educators, a caucus of the United Federation of Teachers

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Shortest Executive Board Meeting Makes Up for Previous One

Reacting to the recent contract ratification debacle which caused some members to miss the opening kick-off of Monday night football, the Executive Board, Monday night, concluded its business in a record 20 minutes.

“I didn’t even get to finish dessert,” complained one disgruntled dissident.

Mendel distributed a letter written by Jeffrey Zaino, the Vice President in charge of elections for the American Arbitration Association, to try to provide cover for the charge that the ballot envelopes were translucent. Despite clear evidence to the contrary Zaino insisted that “the double envelopes….prevented someone who handled the envelopes from seeing how the voter voted.”

The Executive Board had no questions, no reports and considered only one resolution which, not to depart from past practice, elicited one disagreement.

The resolution called for the waiver of the dues increase, despite the alleged fiscal implications, from the retroactive monies we will receive on December 15th. When a question was raised about whether a resolution was necessary and whether this departed from past practice, Mendel stated that it was not unprecedented

An attempt was then made to amend the resolution to reflect this past practice and to prevent the current Union leadership from taking unwarranted credit for something that is always done; Jeffrey Zahler made a motion to table.

It appears that motions to table are becoming the preferred method of Unity Executive Board members to deal with issues that provide full disclosure to resolutions.

Needless to say the motion to table was passed and the resolution that will go before the Delegate Assembly will appear that Randi and her caucus are truly magnanimous.

Some members were seen taking cookies home. They made it home for the kick-off.

13 comments:

It is worth mentioning that the opposition to Unity objected to the minutes of the last Executive Board Meeting because the UFT only printed the amended resolution on see through ballots and not the entire resolution that the opposition proposed. We have a right to see our proposals reflected in the minutes in their original form.

The whereas clause that was deleted from the minutes stated, "WHEREAS, during the recent contract referendum, the envelopes were designed in such a manner to permit the viewing of how a member voted by simply hoding the outside envelope up to light and giving the opportunity as well as the appearance of vote improperity."

To be fair, the UFT staff director is checking if in the past the UFT printed resolutions in the minutes as they were originally proposed. I have not checked prior minutes yet but I'm fairly certain that the UFT printed resolutions in minutes in their entirety, whether amended or not.

It appears that the UFT leaders are afraid to even print in the minutes what the opposition proposes. Why do they fear us so much? It's not enough for the majority to vote us down. Now they want to strike what we propose from the record.

Hours before the Executive Board meeting I sent out an ICE Update referring to the upcoming meeting:

"Look for reports soon on the food fights and attacks on the opposition as UFT officials express phony outrage at the actions of the opposition and then anonymously go on the blog to complain about how dishonest we are. You can’t make this stuff up. We’re willing to throw in the towel early so they can get home to watch the football game but certain union officials just can’t seem to shut up, arguing every question and interrupting constantly – as if anyone in the room will be convinced. To all our Unity Exec Bd members who read this: you need to have a leader who is a football fan."

To call an Executive Board meeting for the sole (the fish was actually salmon) purpose of making a public relations point to the members about how wonderful they are for not taking dues out on the retroactive pay is the clearest expression of the mantra: THE UFT IS JUST A PR MACHINE. Just say this and you can explain almost every inexplicable action taken by the leadership.

When Jeff exposed the sham of having a meeting just to pass this meaningless resolution by amending it to say this is standard procedure Jeff Zahler, the main recruiter for Unity caucus, was quick to table it. The excuse used? The Bush administration is closely monitoring unions. I wonder if they're monitoring unions that try to keep people from using mailboxes.

For me the meeting was worth it. I got 3 chocolate chip cookies and a brownie as they were packing all the uneaten food away but never got the cherry kobbler. Next time I bring tupperware.

The more I learn about Unity's actions and anti-democratic tactics, the more I realize this union is in desperate need of a complete change of leaderhip. Reading the ICE blog is an education on just how totalitarian our union's leadership is. If more people were aware of the Tammany Hall style politics at work here, they would be mad as hell. I'm starting to understand why Unity is so threatened by ICE and the UTP. I realize why they stiffle any discussion and debate, and instead resort to smear tactics, and attempt to silence our voices. Apparently the truth is a luxury they cannot afford. Thank you for the education, the Unified Teachers Party will continue to expose our leadership for what they are.

While the rest of us are having sleepless nights wondering about how the terms of the new contract will impact us daily, the Executive Board concludes its business in 20 minutes! Do they have all the answers or could it be they just don't care?Resolutions about past practices, incredible! Once again it's all about PR, and not about the membership. Once again there is no room for real discussion.

Can a new teacher in an 8-period a day elementary school be asked to do lunch duty each and every day?I thought it was part of the professional menu which would make it legal to do only once a week. Oh, and by the way, no other new teacher was asked to do it. So much for rotating the lunch duty.

I just found out that she was not even supposed to start until Feb. 1 (unity was able to answer that one).

I'm not an elementary school person but my understanding is that the professional period in 8 period elementary schools is once a week. Maybe there is some loophole I don't know about or the person has been coerced into daily lunch duty or the person has some kind of reduced teaching load (compensatory time as per Article 7C4g).

I'm not an elementary school person but my understanding is that the professional period in 8 period elementary schools is once a week. Maybe there is some loophole I don't know about or the person has been coerced into daily lunch duty or the person has some kind of reduced teaching load (compensatory time as per Article 7C4g).

Additionally the Department of Labor provides other reports about the UFT. Go to their site and input file number 063-924 at the top and select the type of report you want to review. These files are in spreadsheet format.